The latter, say many Chinese, speaking of the new, golden headquarters of the People’s Daily newspaper in Beijing. (Here’s a link to the newspaper in English.)

Netizens are incredulous. The architect sounds a tad defensive. And the newspaper itself – well, we tried to contact them on five different numbers supplied by people answering the telephone at the newspaper, but no one would say anything. A final call, to the paper’s external cooperation office to apply for formal permission to conduct a telephone interview, went unanswered.

The People’s Daily, or Renmin Ribao as it’s known in Chinese, is the Communist Party mouthpiece, “the official organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party,” as the Encyclopaedia Britannica notes. It was established in 1948 toward the end of the Chinese civil war and has been in Beijing since 1949. It’s serious. It’s staid. It carries important messages for about 82 million party members in China. And its new, curved tower Read more…